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Saw, 2004 |
 aw
might be the film that started off the current (as of early 2006) run of
low budget, super-gruesome horror films, most of which harken back to
the cheesy slasher/borderline snuff flick days of the original Texas
Chainsaw Massacre.
Saw isn't a great film, but it's got a lot of good ideas, and the spirit and effort and originality easily triumph over the budget constraints and bad actors/acting. To the scores: Saw is a brilliant film and a horror masterpiece, when you consider they made it in 18 days, for 1.2 million dollars. It's far better than numerous action/horror films that cost more than $40 or $50 million, and it has one of the best concepts of any horror movie ever made. In a relative scoring chart, like the one I initially used on my Chop Socky reviews page, this one would have 8s and 9s across the board. Compared to other films though, quality films with quality actors and scripts, Saw falls a bit short. But for the target audience of horror fans, it's absolutely brilliant. The concept is what it's really all about, and while the Jigsaw Killer is never believable except as an elaborate plot device, and the conclusion is completely ridiculous when you consider the leaps of faith it required by the person who set it all into motion, it's still a damn nifty idea. In a sick, twisted, devious, and gruesome sort of way. This is definitely not a film for children, though teens will likely adore it. I would probably have watched it every day, to the point of memorizing the dialogue, if it had come out when I was 16ish. The biggest drawback, besides the plot holes that gape in retrospect, is the acting. It's uniformly horrendous, especially by the actual actors in the film. One of the leads is the co-script writer, and he's fine, for a horror movie. On the other hand, Danny Glover is featured as a crazy ex-cop, and he's awful. Totally out of his depth trying to play a nutty guy; he's like Sergeant Murtaugh on LSD. Worse is Carey Elwes, whose bloated, blotchy-face will make you think The Princess Bride was released far longer than 18 years ago. Given the acting, an unfortunate amount of the film is spent in one small set, with two men chained to opposite walls of a bathroom and a bloody corpse lying between them. It's a great set up, and the cool stuff we see in flashbacks and elsewhere keeps our interest, but when there are two guys in a room and neither of them can act, it gets painful, after a while. Imagine Silence of the Lambs, but with Denise Richards and Freddie Prinze Jr. playing the leads. Okay, that was mean. Saw isn't that bad, but 90% of the coolness is the plot and the scenarios it shows us, with acting that steadily drags it down, and a plot that grows more and more absurd as the surprises are revealed. It's far better than it has any right to be though, considering the resources the filmmakers had at their disposal. |
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